Why aren’t the superheroes delivering audiences this summer?

Dropping more than 65 percent in its second weekend from an inauspicious $52.3 million premiere, Warner’s DC Comics-based “Green Lantern” proved that moviegoers’ appetites for superhero fare has mortal limits. (Though Warner is already developing a sequel.)

“Thor” fared much better, but it’s not the hit other Marvel properties have been. Same for the reboot of “X-Men.”

In fact, none of the superhero franchises this tentpole season have fared anything like the model that inspired them: the gargantuan hit that was “Iron Man,” whose sequel did even better. ($585.2 Million in Global BO)

Also read: ‘Men in Black 3’: Delays, Script Problems and Will Smith’s Really Big Trailer

So what’s the story? TheWrap investigated and found five reasons why superheroes are struggling this summer. 

TOO MANY MEN IN TIGHTS

Moviegoers have seen too many movies featuring heroes in tights saving the country, planet or alien worlds.

In fact, each of the three comic-based films released this spring/summer has debuted to more domestic box-office revenue than the next.

Also read: ‘Green Lantern’ in 3D: Accounted for Only 36% of Attendance, 45% of Box Office Revenue

The Onion summed up this narrative repetitiveness the best. Several days before “Green Lantern’s” premiere, the comedy group released a satirical entertainment news segment that was comically full of vague generalities that could pretty much fit any superhero film.

“Warner Bros. executives say the movie will remain faithful to the comic books, adapting a classic plot line in which the Green Lantern encounters a conflict and overcomes it using his Lantern powers!” read the cheery faux ET newswoman.

So yes — “Green Lantern” looked like every other superhero you’ve never heard of that’s been released so far.

“I think the public is tired of [bad] mega-budget movies, and social media has given them the tools to warn their friends to ignore $100-plus million domestic marketing campaigns,” said a marketing executive at a rival studio who was clearly put in an ill humor by all of this.

NOT ENOUGH YOUNG DUDES GOING TO MOVIES

Perhaps no other genre has been as affected by the sharp decline in consumption by what has been traditionally the most active moviegoing demographic — men under 25.

Also read: Review: ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’ Can’t Get It Up 

For “Green Lantern,” for example, men accounted for 64 percent of the opening-weekend audience, but only 37 percent of the audience was under the age of 25.

For “X-Men: First Class,” only 46 percent of the audience was under 25; for “Thor,” it was only 28 percent.

“It’s a huge problem,” said one studio distribution executive, referring to the flight of younger males from the multiplex.

“I keep banging the drum about it to anyone on the lot who will listen to me.”

Now, so are we.

3D IS DRAGGING THE GENRE DOWN

While converting “Green Lantern” to 3D only added to production costs in excess of $200 million, it’s questionable how much benefit was gained at the box office.

Only 36 percent of ticket buyers chose to see the movie in 3D on opening weekend, despite the fact that more than half of the movie’s initial screen count — around 3,200 screens — were showing the film in 3D.

For “Thor,” 43 percent of moviegoers chose the non-IMAX 3D option.

RYAN REYNOLDS & CHRIS HEMSWORTH ARE NOT ROBERT DOWNEY JR.

Robert Downey Jr., an Oscar-nominated actor with something to prove after well-chronicled drug problems, brought his innate charm and comic timing to “Iron Man,” setting the bar high for future actors in comic book roles.

It helped that he was working with a good director with a light comic touch (Jon Favreau) and a good script. 

Neither “Green Lantern” star Ryan Reynolds or “Thor” star Chris Hemsworth could measure up to that standard. Nor, for that matter, are Martin Campbell and Kenneth Branagh known for their comedic touch.

These projects are comic book adaptations, remember. 

THEY’RE CALLED SECOND-TIER SUPERHEROES FOR A REASON

Few properties beyond “Batman,” “Spider-Man” and “Superman” have established the kind of broad popularity needed to create a worldwide hit at the box office. “Iron Man” is proving to be the rare exception,

Fox had some success adapting “Fantastic Four.” But the studio’s attempt to extend the franchise beyond the second installment, “Rise of the Silver Surfer,” effectively ended when the sequel dropped more than 65 percent on its second weekend. 

And in 2008, Universal tried re-adapting Marvel’s “The Incredible Hulk” with Edward Norton in the starring role. The movie got off to a $55.4 million start. But it too dropped more than 60 percent in its second weekend and never spawned a sequel.

The good news for the box office: ew installments of Batman and Spider-Man are due out next summer, with fresh incarnations of Superman and Iron Man following soon after.

This phone was made to be seen.

No, really. The Samsung Infuse 4G’s huge 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus screen not only looks great, but practically begs for video playback.

Of course, that raises the question: Is that enough to differentiate the Infuse from Android’s numerous oversized offerings? For the most part, yes.

Samsung has packed this lithe handset with pretty much everything necessary for delivering entertainment on the go. Front and center is its spacious, yet ever-so pixel-challenged 800 x 480 display, a 1.3-megapixel forward-facing camera (with an 8-MP heavy hitter on the rear), and a row of capacitive Android navigation keys.

Inside its slinky 0.35-inch frame is a 4G data radio, and a beefy 1,750-milliampere-hour battery and a 1.2-GHz processor. The processor is powerful, but only single-core. I was surprised by this — Android phone manufacturers are rapidly switching to dual-core processors, as the beefier chips are a marquee differentiating feature in a crowded market. And while this phone doesn’t have a dual-core chip, it had more than enough guts for my typicalsmartphone needs. E-mailing, task management, light calling and even heavy app and web use was reasonably smooth within the phones somewhat outdated Android 2.2 Froyo OS. In fact, once I got over the pocket-stretching size of the device, the multimedia-minded battery made the Infuse a solid performer for marathon productivity sessions.

However, the real fun of the Infuse lies in goofing off.

Bloatware is rarely worth celebrating, but the video-centric apps that ship on the handset aren’t a complete waste. AT&T’s U-Verse app brought both live TV and on-demand downloads of favorite series like Parks and Recreation, while Samsung’s movie rental store and the generic video player supplied access to feature-length content.

It’s worth noting that none of these options are exactly free (save for the video player, which let me play my ripped movies). Despite that predictable hitch, the Infuse mostly handled playback like a champ. Streaming live TV over the 4G connection produced the occasional hiccup, but pretty much anything I downloaded locally played back flawlessly on the device.

An integrated kickstand or dock would’ve helped for longer viewing sessions, but that’s a minor gripe for a phone that actually has the muscle and endurance to rain down serious flickage at a moment’s notice. And that screen! It’s gorgeous.

Is this enough to dethrone hulking competitors like the Droid X2? Probably. Though we’ve all seen a lot of the Infuse’s individual elements before, it’s rare that they’re packed into such a single cohesive package. Even the mildly girth-conscious will likely balk at the size, but it’s hard to take issue with a handset infused with this much win.

WIRED 
Form+Function+Fun. Oversized touchscreen is great for flicks. Fantastic battery life regardless of use patterns. Preternaturally light at 4.5 ounces. Ships with a $25 voucher for movie rentals. Great photos (8MP) decent video (720p).

TIRED 
Speaker is fine for calls, anemic for movies. Plastic chassis and volume rocker are pure chintz. Getting video onto a TV is dongle-reliant. All this downloadable video sweetness ships with a tiny 2GB card.

A treasure trove of hundreds of new species may have been discovered in the Philippines, including a bizarre sea star that feeds exclusively on sunken driftwood and a deep-sea, shrimp-eating shark that swells up to scare off other predators.

Scientists braved leeches and a host of venomous creatures from the mountains to the sea to uncover more than 300 species that are likely new to science. These findings include dozens of new insects and spiders, more than 50 colorful new sea slugs and a number of deep-sea armored corals ”which protect themselves against predatory nibbles from fish by growing large, spiky plates,” said researcher Terrence Gosliner, dean of science and research collections at the California Academy of Sciences and leader of the 2011 Philippine Biodiversity Expedition.

Challenging field work

Working in the field is always a challenge, Gosliner noted. “We had our work both on the coral reefs and rain forest interrupted by an early typhoon; we were out of the water for two days,” he said.

“One of the biologists working in the mountains was sleeping in a hammock; during the night, one of the trees his hammock was tied to was uprooted and he was suddenly on the ground,” Gosliner added. “One researcher knelt on a venomous lionfish and later found himself on a mountain kneeling on poisonous plants.”

The hard-won result of their efforts was the most comprehensive scientific survey effort ever conducted in the Philippines.

“I have been working in the Philippines on my own research for 20 years — I thought it would be great to bring a large team of researchers together to study from mountaintops to the deep sea, to determine if all of these places harbor new species,” Gosliner said. “I was delighted that my hunch proved to be correct.”

Their novel discoveries include a cicada that makes a distinctive “laughing” call, a crab whose pincers are lined with needlelike teeth, and a wormlike pipefish that hides among colonies of soft coral. In addition, they discovered a possible new species of swell shark — a shark that pumps water into its stomach to puff up — which unlike its relatives possesses a very distinctive camouflaged color pattern.

A number of species live in places rarely, if ever, visited by people, such as a primitive plant called a spikemoss from the perilously steep upper slopes of Mount Isarog and a snake eel from the bottom of the ocean. Many others have avoided detection in the past because of their diminutive size, such asgoblin spiders and barnacles that all measure just a few millimeters long.

“One of the likely new urchins is very small — it’s called a pea urchin, and yes, it’s about the size of a pea,” Gosliner said.

Hot hotspots

All these new findings help support the idea that the Philippines “is one of the hottest of the hotspots for diverse and threatened life on Earth,” Gosliner said. “We found new species during nearly every dive and hike as we surveyed the country’s reefs, rainforests and the ocean floor.” [10 Species You Can Kiss Goodbye]

In fact, the researchers suggest the waters of the Philippines may house more species than any other marine environment on Earth. The deep-water channel they sampled is nutrient-rich, allowing life to flourish, and has existed for about 60 million years, giving species a great deal of time to evolve. “All of those factors together have led to the high diversity,” Gosliner told LiveScience.

The researchers are sharing their results with Filipino agencies and international groups to develop strategies to best protect the island nation’s extraordinarily rich life. This includes outlining the most important places for establishing or expanding marine protected areas, suggested locations for reforestation and reduction of plastic waste.

“We are hoping the findings will result in recommendations that will translate into policies that will produce a more sustainable future for Filipinos while simultaneously protecting the unique biodiversity,” Gosliner said.

“This expedition has led us to want to undertake more expeditions to the Philippines in other unexplored areas,” he added.

The scientists will present their preliminary results on June 30, during the California Academy of Sciences’ weekly NightLife event.